The present method involves scanning a Windows Event Log on any Windows computer connected to a network. Information about each system is saved into a central database. The present invention is implemented running a specialized program called the Availability Monitor program. Before any scanning is done, the user must set-up an Availability Monitor scanning information run for each partition and service processor involving information such as operating systems, usernames, passwords, and computer names or IP addresses to set up scanning as described in a co-pending application, U.S. Ser. No. 10/308,370 entitled “Method For Collecting And Transporting Stability Data”. The method of the present invention begins with the user clicking on the “Scan Logs” option on the main screen of the Availability Monitor program.
One prior art method to which the method of the present invention generally relates is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,475 entitled “Methods Of Dynamically Generating User Messages Utilizing Error Log Data With A Computer System”. This prior art method operates with an error log request generated by a component of a communication software system. The error log request is analyzed and compared to entries in one of a plurality of records in a message look-up table. If there is a match between the fields of the error log request and selected entries of a record in the look-up table, a user message request is generated which facilitates the display of a pre-existing user friendly message as modified with data included in the generated user message request.
The present invention differs from the above prior cited art in that the prior invention focuses on generating user message requests. It only uses the error log data to help generate messages. Contrarily, the primary goal of the present invention is to gather records in a Windows Event Log and store them into a central database. The prior art method has no means to store any log information and there is no input required from the user other than the pre-configure information that is needed the access each partition on a system. The method of the present invention allows connections to other associated partitions having other platforms and computer systems, in order to read and process each of those event logs.
Yet another prior art method to which the method of the present invention generally relates is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,768 entitled “Method And System For Analyzing Error Logs For Diagnostics”. This prior art method discloses an error log analysis system comprising a diagnostic unit and a training unit. The training unit includes a plurality of historical error logs generated during abnormal operation or failure from a plurality of machines, and the actual fixes (repair solutions) associated with the abnormal events or failures. A block finding unit identifies sections of each error log that are in common with sections of other historical error logs. The common sections are then labeled as blocks. Each block is then weighted with a numerical value that is indicative of its value in diagnosing a fault. In the diagnostic unit, new error logs associated with a device failure or abnormal operation are received and compared against the blocks of the historical error logs stored in the training unit. If the new error log is found to contain block(s) similar to the blocks contained in the logs in the training unit, then a similarity index is determined by a similarity index unit, and a solution(s) is proposed to solve the new problem. After a solution is verified, the new case is stored in the training unit and used for comparison against future new cases.
The present invention differs from this prior art in that the cited prior art deals with analyzing error logs for diagnostics whereas the method of the present invention is not used for analyzing error logs, but rather for storing event log records into a database. The method of the present invention does not give solutions, but rather helps keep historical data of events. The prior art method, however, is a method for problem solving while the present method is used for monitoring the stability of (CMP) Cellular Multi-Processor servers which use multiple and different types of operating platforms.
Yet another prior art method to which the method of the present invention generally relates is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,455 entitled “Correction And Monitoring Of Transient Errors In A Memory System”. This prior art method is a microcomputer system in which transient errors occurring in a memory are corrected and logged by a program controlled microprocessor and a simple error detection and correction circuit. When an error occurs in information readout of a memory location, the error detection and correction circuit is responsive to the error to (1) store the address of the memory block containing the location, (2) store the type of error, and (3) generate an error signal which interrupts the microprocessor. In response to the interrupt, the microprocessor enters an interrupt routine to: (1) identify the block of memory locations in which the error occurred, (2) determine the type of error, (3) re-access each memory location of the memory block to effect a rereading thereof, (4) receive each word of readout information, corrected if necessary by the error detection and correction circuit, (5) rewrite each of the received words back into the memory at the proper re-accessed memory location, (6) read out each of the rewritten locations to determine if any error is still present which would indicate a permanent rather than a transient error, and (7) finally, log the error in an error rate table if it is a transient error.
The present invention differs from this prior art in that this referenced prior art deals with creating interrupt errors and attempts to fix those errors. If it can't fix the error then it records the error into a log. The method of the present invention does not do any logging of memory errors. The event log that the present invention accesses has been already created and the event log continuously adds new events as they are created.
The present invention differs from this prior art in that the cited prior art deals with some type of hardware device not related to anything with the method of the present invention. This device is placed on a computer monitor.
Yet another prior art method to which the method of the present invention generally relates is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,676 entitled “Programmable Hardware Event Monitoring Method”. This prior art method is a system for monitoring hardware events in a computer system and implements a hardware event monitor of control registers. Programmable generic fields can be internally or externally programmed for monitoring events ranging from simple operations to complex event sequences. It uses programmed criteria incorporated into the hardware event monitor, to note events within the computer system which are monitored by initiating successive compares of programmed criteria with processing events. This hardware event monitor can trigger external actions upon successful detection of compares indicating that all criteria programmed into the hardware event monitor have been achieved. The hardware event monitor and system trace controls act as a single unified entity with remote programming of the hardware event monitor and trace controls using a UBUS to permit capturing and logging problem debugging and permit using the instrumentation data for use in remote system administration, for technical support assistance, field and customer engineering applications, performance analysis, hardware error injection for recovery, diagnostic testing, and enabling dither to break resource deadlocks.
The present invention differs from this prior art in that the referenced prior art only logs events and does not acquire any information from the logs as the present invention does. The prior art method only deals with one computer system whereas the method of the present invention also manages multiple computer partitions, and multiple computer systems, to read and process each of the acquired event logs into one central database.